iOS 8 bug said to be eating up users iCloud Drive docs

Accidentally nukes iWork documents, too

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Apple's rocky iOS 8 launch apparently isn't quite over yet, as a number of users are reporting a "Reset All Settings" option appears to be living up to its name, effectively wiping out valuable iCloud Drive data it's not supposed to.

MacRumors has multiple readers on its forums reporting they've been bitten by an undocumented iOS 8 bug capable of purging documents from a connected iCloud Drive account, despite assurances from Apple that "no data or media will be deleted."

The problem appears to only be affecting iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users who have first upgraded to iCloud Drive, a more robust offering for saving documents and other data, which can then be accessed from other synced devices.

Selecting the "Reset All Settings" option found under the General > Reset menu of the Settings app is intended to be a troubleshooting measure, but as the screenshot above shows, should always leave connected iCloud account data intact.

iWork at risk

Affected users claim the bug targets only documents saved to the cloud from Apple's own iWork suite, which includes Microsoft Office alternatives Pages, Numbers and Keynote, while leaving data from third-party apps intact.

MacRumors was able to test the apparent bug on its own hardware, noting iCloud Drive data purged from a reset iPhone also removed all iWork documents from the iCloud.com web app as well as a Mac running the latest beta of OS X Yosemite 10.10.

While OS X users have been successful at restoring lost documents from backup folders or Apple's Time Machine software, the report recommends iOS 8 users who have already upgraded to iCloud Drive refrain from resetting their devices until a permanent fix can be found.

Apple has yet to acknowledge the glitch, although at least one user has had their iCloud account placed into troubleshooting mode as engineers worked to investigate the problem.